This invention relates to bottle openers and in particular an opener adapted to remove a crown cap.
Various designs for bottle openers able to remove crown caps are known at present. A simple well known opener for this purpose has an elongate handle with an opening mechanism at one end. The opening mechanism is formed by means of a hole that has a fulcrum on one side and a prying lip on the other side. The fulcrum and the prying lip are formed so that the opener can be placed on a cap in such a manner that the lip engages a bottom edge of the cap and the fulcrum engages the top surface of the cap such that when the opener is pivoted upwardly with respect to the bottle, the cap is removed.
It is also known to combine a bottle opener with another device that can be used for other purposes. For example, the provision of a bottle opener on a jack knife is well known. The provision of a bottle opener on a gas lighter is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,920 issued Dec. 7, 1982 to Fiap S.r.l. In the device of this patent, the gas lighter which is of the piezoelectric type, has an end that is shaped both to be hung up and to be utilized as a bottle opener. The body of the gas lighter acts as a handle for the opener so that the user will have the necessary leverage when he is removing a crown cap. However, the device of this patent requires a gas lighter of special construction and because of the combined size of the gas lighter-bottle opener, the device is not particularly suited for carrying in one's pocket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,223 issued Feb. 15, 1983, to Mildoy Enterprises discloses a bottle opener that also acts as a container for a disposable lighter. The opener has an elongate plastic body with a hollow internal chamber, open at one end, such that a disposable lighter may be snuggly inserted into the chamber. It has a recessed opening at the opposite end that provides a crown cap removing mechanism. The advantage of this known opener is that it can be conveniently carried in a purse or pocket without significantly adding to the user's collection of paraphernalia. There are disadvantages however to this known container opener, including the fact that the container opener must be longer than the body portion of the lighter (which contains the lighter fluid) in order to provide room for the opening mechanism. This makes the device more awkward to carry in one's pocket. In addition, the container opener will not stand up on its end because of the rounded opening mechanism at the bottom end. Furthermore, it may be difficult to remove the disposable lighter from the opener without the use of some sort of tool.
An object of the present invention is to provide a combination bottle opener and lighter case that is inexpensive to construct and easy to use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a combination bottle opener and lighter case that can be used in conjunction with well known disposable lighters and that provides an effective and reliable means for removing crown caps from bottles.